However, Grammy award-winner Sam Smith, along with highly-anticipated albums from One Direction and Ed Sheeran, mean the U.K. actually dominates the top 10 artist rankings for 2014, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) announced Thursday.

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One Direction, at Brit Awards 2014

Britain has five artists in BPI's list of the world's top 10 pop stars which is based on album sales, track sales and streams in 2014. The U.S., by comparison, has only four: Michael Jackson, Katy Perry and Beyoncé, along with Taylor Swift.

"The U.K. is a creative powerhouse that punches well above its weight on the world stage," Gennaro Castaldo, director of communications at BPI, told CNBC.

British music accounted for 13.7 percent of all music sales across the world last year – a rise from 13 percent in 2013.

In some countries, however, the U.K.'s musical impact was bigger than in others. British artists accounted for over 22 percent of sales in Australia, but this figure fell to just 12.2 percent in the U.S. – although this was higher than the year before.

The BPI's "Music Market 2015" report also highlighted that in the U.K., music streaming doubled in 2014 and sales of vinyl hit a 20-year high in the country.